5 ms·

The big mystery to me is whether Bitcoin is the Myspace or Facebook of digital currency. Only time will tell.

by vocatus_gate 9y ago

walkingolof 9y ago
Just like Facebook, the usurper have to do something allot better to drag people away.
- criddell 9y ago
  I think it's easier to unseat Bitcoin than Facebook. With a cyrpto currency, it seems like all you would have to do is make mining more profitable on your currency than on Bitcoins.
  - hectorlorenzo 9y ago
    This could easily lead to a race to the bottom. Maybe adoption will be the determining factor? What could determine a successful adoption rate for a cryptocurrency: governments, citizens, corporations? Amazon accepting a specific cryptocurrency and thus making it useful for the general public?
  - ballenf 9y ago
    It's the same problem as with FB. To get a mass exodus from BTC you need to have a mass exodus in advance in order to get value in the new currency. Everyone uses FB/BTC because everyone uses FB/BTC. The advice that the usurper needs to be 10x better to win is applicable here, imo. It might even be 100x given the bigger stakes and greater risk aversion of the parties.
- seppin 9y ago
  exclusivity. it'll be a coin launched only on Harvard at first
murph37 9y ago
This is a large concern for me. If cryptocurrencies begin to attract more users and widespread adoption, what is preventing a new coin that corrects Bitcoin's inefficiencies from ultimately gaining more users and superseding it? I would love to know your guy's thoughts.
- prostoalex 9y ago
  You need to bootstrap the infrastructure by convincing miners to join your cause. A well-heeled entity could just offer fiat money (which miners apparently still like), a less well-heeled entity could somehow differentiate at the mining level, e.g. by designing proof-of-work algorithms that would work on home GPUs or CPUs (and thus be accessible to billions of home PC users) which is what Litecoin and some others attempted to address. The deflationary aspect of Bitcoin will probably get in the way at some point - hypothetically, if you owned BTC and USD today, why would you ever spend a BTC? Spending even costs you money (in transaction fees), while saving doesn't. It's the system that rewards hoarding.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  Nothing, and it's actually easy to make the argument that that was the intent, in the open source, freedom of choice, no centralization, heck the powers kind of environments Bitcoin became popular through.
  - murph37 9y ago
    Very true. I guess a better question would be, why is Bitcoin able to maintain its market share, popularity, and lead now? Will it be able to maintain it moving forward?
- 1ba9115454 9y ago
  There are plenty of coins already that are technically better than Bitcoin. It's just that Bitcoin has the network effect. So perhaps one day a new coin will overtake Bitcoin, but my guess is that the coin will need a very distinct advanatge to gain traction.

The big mystery to me is whether Bitcoin is the Myspace or Facebook of digital currency. Only time will tell.

walkingolof 9y ago

Just like Facebook, the usurper have to do something allot better to drag people away.

criddell 9y ago
I think it's easier to unseat Bitcoin than Facebook. With a cyrpto currency, it seems like all you would have to do is make mining more profitable on your currency than on Bitcoins.
- hectorlorenzo 9y ago
  This could easily lead to a race to the bottom. Maybe adoption will be the determining factor? What could determine a successful adoption rate for a cryptocurrency: governments, citizens, corporations? Amazon accepting a specific cryptocurrency and thus making it useful for the general public?
- ballenf 9y ago
  It's the same problem as with FB. To get a mass exodus from BTC you need to have a mass exodus in advance in order to get value in the new currency. Everyone uses FB/BTC because everyone uses FB/BTC. The advice that the usurper needs to be 10x better to win is applicable here, imo. It might even be 100x given the bigger stakes and greater risk aversion of the parties.
seppin 9y ago
exclusivity. it'll be a coin launched only on Harvard at first

murph37 9y ago

This is a large concern for me. If cryptocurrencies begin to attract more users and widespread adoption, what is preventing a new coin that corrects Bitcoin's inefficiencies from ultimately gaining more users and superseding it? I would love to know your guy's thoughts.

prostoalex 9y ago
You need to bootstrap the infrastructure by convincing miners to join your cause. A well-heeled entity could just offer fiat money (which miners apparently still like), a less well-heeled entity could somehow differentiate at the mining level, e.g. by designing proof-of-work algorithms that would work on home GPUs or CPUs (and thus be accessible to billions of home PC users) which is what Litecoin and some others attempted to address. The deflationary aspect of Bitcoin will probably get in the way at some point - hypothetically, if you owned BTC and USD today, why would you ever spend a BTC? Spending even costs you money (in transaction fees), while saving doesn't. It's the system that rewards hoarding.
Cthulhu_ 9y ago
Nothing, and it's actually easy to make the argument that that was the intent, in the open source, freedom of choice, no centralization, heck the powers kind of environments Bitcoin became popular through.
- murph37 9y ago
  Very true. I guess a better question would be, why is Bitcoin able to maintain its market share, popularity, and lead now? Will it be able to maintain it moving forward?
1ba9115454 9y ago
There are plenty of coins already that are technically better than Bitcoin. It's just that Bitcoin has the network effect. So perhaps one day a new coin will overtake Bitcoin, but my guess is that the coin will need a very distinct advanatge to gain traction.